As well as all the incredible scenery that Santorini has to offer and all the things to see/do, the food itself is not too shabby. We had some of our best meals of Greece (and, I’m almost willing to say, of Europe!) in Santorini. πολύ νόστιμο! Welcome to this Allergian’s food tour of Santorini. Be prepared to eat your heart out!

We begin our journey at Pelican Kipos. We stumbled upon this restaurant by accident – and luckily we did! This was definitely our fave restaurant of Greece and is in close competition to Trattoria Za Za’s in Firenze. Firstly, for the ambiance – this place has a lovely courtyard, outdoor area, full of trees and greenery (you’ll feel a bit like you are on a tropical island). But, more importantly (because really all we care about is the food, right?), the food was outstanding!! I ordered roasted lamb with potatoes and vegetables, served in a ceramic pot. I received a massive piece of lamb, which was so deliciously soft and juicy. This was, forks down, the best lamb I’ve ever tasted. We just had to go back a second time, so that the BF could enjoy it too. It is a bit on the pricier side (by Greece standards), but oh so worth it.

We also went to Pelican Kipos for breakfast one morning, as we just HAD to try the waffles which we spotted the night before (and waffles are my weakness). These waffles were thick delicious waffles, which we loved! Pelican Kipos also has every type of breakfast combo imaginable!

The next stop on our ‘great restaurants in Santorini’ tour is Nikolas. Our hotel recommended this restaurant to us and, upon arriving to a long queue out the door, we knew we had to wait. We were told it would be about a 25-minute wait, but luckily we were called after only a few minutes. We were served by the owner (let’s call him Nik). Nik was really helpful and was particularly great with my allergies. He told me a story about an Allergian who had eaten at his restaurant (without informing them of her allergies) and had an allergic reaction in his restaurant! Because of this, Nik was so petrified of this happening again that he took extra care with me. He ran me through the menu and oversaw the cooking of my meal. I ordered the roast chicken with potatoes and carrot in a lemon sauce, which was really delicious.

Finally, we had a great gyro at Nick the Grill [a different Nick to the one above], which is rated the best gyro in Fira town. This was actually one of the few places I found in Greece that served lamb gyros. This came as a huge surprise to me, because I would have expected lamb to be the basic meat there. It was great!

Our hotel also recommended we have breakfast at Mama’s House. We went there one morning and, whilst “Mama” was hilariously joking around with us, the service was far too slow. It was, however, very entertaining watching one waiter literally running from table to table to save time (I can’t say that I’ve ever seen this before).

I also treated myself (cheating on my lactose intolerance) to a frozen Greek yoghurt at Chillbox. This was one of those places where you choose your toppings, but this was a bit more Allergian-friendly in that the store puts all the toppings on for you (rather than a DIY Allergians’-worst-nightmare sort of a situation). So I had a box of frozen Greek yoghurt, both vanilla and natural flavours (I’m a rager) and it was too good!

One thing to try in Santorini (or in Greece more generally) is the Greek coffee. The BF tried this at Pelican Kipos with our waffles and, apart from the fact that he did not drink it properly (I didn’t know you could drink something ‘incorrectly’ but basically he ate the ground coffee that was at the bottom of the cup), he would definitely recommend coffee lovers give it a try.

As previously mentioned in my post Meat Me Halfway, allergies didn’t seem to be particularly common in Greece and there was a bit more of a blasé attitude towards allergies than I experienced in other countries. But at proper restaurants (as opposed to casual gyro takeaway style places), waiters always dealt with it appropriately and, due to the nature of the foods I ordered, I never felt unsafe or unsure about what I was eating.

We didn’t eat at all in Oia Town, but there were heaps of nice looking restaurants lining the streets (with amazing views). You will also find plenty of restaurants through the weaving streets of Fira Town, particularly on Erythrou Stavrou (where Nikolas is).

One thing to note is that there wasn’t an abundance of restaurants serving other cuisines (or maybe that was just because I had my Greek food goggles on). Therefore, if you can’t or don’t eat meat/fish, it is probably worth doing your research first as to restaurants you can go! Pelican Kipos, for example, has a very extensive menu.

We hope you enjoyed our food tour today. Thanks for stopping by! The next stop on my Eurotrip was Athens!

I had a ball eating in Greece. I hadn’t eaten too much Greek food before visiting Greece, but realizing that the Greek cuisine pretty much consists of various forms of meat, I knew it would be a winner.

The next 9 or so days involved eating far more gyros than I’d like to admit. But when they taste that good and cost 2 euro (about AU$3.50!!), how could I pass it up???

The gyros in Greece (pronounced “iros” [… or something like that]) comprise your choice of meat, some salad, tzatziki and chips in a delicious pita bread. I always ordered the chicken, because, to my surprise, lamb gyros weren’t all that common in Greece. I had to leave out the tzatziki (because of the lactose), so it probably wasn’t quite as delicious as it otherwise would be, but it was still pretty darn good.

I found that wherever you went, the gyros were amazing. You don’t need to go to some fancy restaurant to get good food in Greece – and in fact, I think the less fancy, the more authentic.

The two best gyros I had in Mykonos were at Tropicana (surprisingly, given it is essentially a bar) and at Saki’s Grill House (which is known to be the best gyro in Mykonos). The Saki’s Grill gyros were huge and the pita bread, in particular, was to die for. I’d definitely recommend a visit! The Tropicana gyros tasted delicious and could be enjoyed while lounging on the beach soaking up the sun!

Tropicana

Saki’s Grill House

We also decided one night to splurge a little. The BF and I met up with 2 other friends and we went to a restaurant for a feast. Many of the restaurants offer these giant mixed plates to share between 2. We got chicken shashlik, chicken wings, sausages, hamburgers, pita, dips, chips and more. It was 26 euro for 2 people (about $38 for 2) which was pretty good value because we were popping afterwards! Apologies for the awful photos and, no, this wasn’t the full platter.

Our feast

Our feast

The thing I loved about this restaurant [and sorry I can’t remember the name], apart from the delicious and never-ending plate of food, was the ambiance. I remember it so clearly. You sit outdoors in the heat in a giant space cluttered full with tables, people, food and chatter. It was a hullabaloo, an organised chaos, an exciting pandemonium; it was wonderfully atmospheric.

Let me talk a bit about my allergies in Mykonos.

I don’t think that allergies are particularly common in Greece. Generally, when I gave my beautiful Greek nut translation sign, people thought I was a little bit crazy. I’d say that Greek people had a bit more of a blasé attitude towards allergies as compared to those in Italy and Spain, but that was possibly because of the nature of the food, in that there was probably no way that there would be nuts inside a gyro and therefore they thought I was crazy for asking. I wouldn’t say that they were careless about my allergies, but just that it wasn’t taken quite as seriously. I did, however, usually get a better response to my allergies when I was eating at hotel restaurants/bars (eg at Paradise Beach), where the staff are probably more accustomed to dealing with allergies.

This being said, however, I felt like I didn’t need to worry as much about my allergies because it was always pretty obvious what I was eating. You could see the gyro meat being cut off the spit in front of you, or you knew that you were eating plain meat without any sauce. There wasn’t anything snuck in there. I had also done a bit of research with my Greek friend, who gave me the low down, and so I knew that nuts are not particularly common in the Greek cuisine, but are quite common in Greek pastries/desserts (eg Baklava).

What I did love about Mykonos was that I got to enjoy dessert. Say what? OK well not dessert, per se, but let’s just call it that. You’ve all (hopefully) read about my disappointment in not being able to enjoy the exciting desserts in Spain and Italy, which generally consisted of nutty or potentially nutty delights. In Mykonos, when lying on the beach in the scorching sun, a delicious ice cream is exactly what one craves. Paradise Beach has a lovely little set up where you can get just about anything (there are restaurants, bars and also a little canteen-ey type place where you can get all sorts of snacks). I went to go look at what ice cream options they had and unfortunately faced a whole lot of gibberish (Greek) ingredients. Until I found the packaged Häagen-Dazs ice cream tubs – complete with English ingredients. Woohoo!

These were mini tubs and there were heaps of different options to choose from. Whilst there were 1 or 2 that contained nuts (but not peanuts), most of the flavours were nut free. The first one I had was crème brulee, which was beyond amazing. The ice cream had chunks of caramel inside, dripping with crème brulee sauce (which tasted a lot like real crème brulee). The second flavour I tried was the chocolate fondant. Wow was it good! It was chocolate ice cream with chunks of brownie, drenched in chocolate sauce. It was definitely worth cheating on the lactose intolerance front! Who needs an Italian hot chocolate or some sort of delicious Spanish pastry when you have Häagen-Dazs ice cream!? Ok I realise that for most non-Allergians, this isn’t all that exciting and it’s probably no comparison, but I’ll take what I can get.

For the vegetarians – I’m sure you would know to expect (almost) nothing but meat in Greece. There’s always the salad option though, and of course lots of cheese. Being an island, I’m pretty sure there were some fish/seafood dishes/restaurants on offer, but meat was the overwhelming majority.

For those allergic to dairy / the lactards – the Greek cuisine is full of dairy – between the tzatsiki, the halloumi, the Greek yoghurt and the feta, there’s plenty of it. That being said, however, it is easy to avoid these things and you can almost always leave the dairy out. There’s always something else to eat.

Some final words about Mykonos:

Ouzo. It’s the Greek specialty liqueur, more particularly, an anise-flavoured aperitif. AKA, if you don’t like liquorice, do not try this. My friends and I bought a bottle and were told to drink it 1 part ouzo, 3 parts water. I smelt the bottle and (as an avid liquorice-hater) could not bring myself to drink it [I think I was still scarred from the limoncello and grappa in Italy]. The far more daring 3 guys I was with took on the challenge and drank their shots of Ouzo and I got to enjoy the looks on their faces once they were downed. Classic!

As I’ve recently started full time work, I’ve started looking for some new snacks for either mid-morning (when lunch time hunger creeps in a bit early) or as an afternoon pick-me-up (when the lethargy kicks in).

I found this recipe for delicious bran muffins. The mixture goes a long way (I halved the recipe and it made about 15-20 muffins) and is really quick and easy to make. The smell of the muffins baking is to-die for and the taste is pretty damn good.

So here goes:

Ingredients:

1 packet of Bran Flakes (350g)

3 cups brown sugar

5 teaspoons of bicarbonate soda

2x 500ml carton of buttermilk. This can also be replaced with lactose free yoghurt or soy yoghurt. For a half recipe, I used 3x 140g tubs of vanilla lactose free yoghurt

This is by far my favourite dessert of all time. Given all my allergies, there aren’t too many delicious dessert options, so I’ve grown up eating my mum’s (Jackie’s) self-saucing hot chocolate pudding. And boy is it gooood. How can something that is nut free, dairy free and soy free taste so damn delicious? Go on, give it a try. It’s pretty easy to make too!

My birthday cake yesterday, made by my mum 🙂

Ingredients:

Cake:

1 cup self-raising flour

2 tablespoons cocoa

30 grams butter or margarine

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup soy milk / lactose free milk / cow’s milk / rice milk

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

¾ cup white sugar

Sauce:

¾ cup brown sugar

¼ cup cocoa

1¾ cup hot water

Instructions for cake:

Sift flour, salt and cocoa.

Add white sugar and mix well.

Stir in milk, vanilla and melted butter/margarine.

Mix until smooth.

Spread evenly into a greased dish.

Instructions for sauce:

Combine brown sugar and sifted cocoa.

Sprinkle over the top of the pudding.

Pour the hot water over the top (I usually add the water gradually as otherwise it often overflows – add a cup at first, and then once it’s been cooking for a while, add the rest).

Bake for 180° for approximately 50 minutes.

For reference, in the image above, this recipe was doubled and served about 6-8.

Granola/toasted muesli is one of the number one things that nut Allergians miss out on, given that it almost always contains nuts (and when it doesn’t, it is almost always going to have been made in highly nut present surroundings).

Here is a homemade option – my mum’s recipe – which you can feel comfortable eating and which still tastes super delicious.

Ingredients:

Olive oil (or butter/margarine)

4 cups of rolled oats

4 tablespoons (or to taste) of honey/maple syrup

4 tablespoons (or to taste) of brown sugar

Toppings of your choice

Directions:

Heat frying pan with olive oil (or butter/margarine)

Place rolled oats in the pan, sprinkling a liberal amount of olive oil (or butter/margarine) over the oats

Fry the rolled oats on a high heat, continually mixing

Once the oats are cooked, add very runny honey/maple syrup and brown sugar